Mickey Rooney did not want to be buried anywhere near stepson: lawyer

A Mickey Rooney lawyer said she’s optimistic the bitter battle over his final resting place will be over soon – but she vowed to fight any possibility of burial near a plot for the surviving stepson accused of elder abuse.

“He certainly did not want to be buried where the stepson against whom we have a $ 2.8 million judgment might also be buried,” Rooney lawyer Vivian Thoreen told the Day after day News Wednesday. “It would just be the cruelest mortification. I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that doesn’t take place.”

Rooney sued stepson Chris Aber in 2011 saying Aber bullied him, withheld food and medication and failed to pay his finance and taxes as he used a bolt from the blue post office box and ten different American Prompt cards to squander millions on a lavish lifestyle, including a Porsche and a $ 100,000 race car.

Lawyers for the late Hollywood legend rushed to court Tuesday claiming Chris and his mom Jan Rooney – the screen legend’s estranged eighth wife – were plotting to claim the body for burial in a group of family plots bought years ago at Pierce Brothers Mortuary in Westlake Village, Calif.

A judge barred any movement of Rooney’s body in anticipation of a hearing set for Friday.

Jan’s lawyers, meanwhile, said they want to avoid a protracted battle as well but felt blindsided by claims Rooney changed his burial plot and will shortly before his death while under a conservatorship at the age of 93.

“The whole thing came as quite a shock,” Jan’s lawyer Mitchell Karasov told The News Wednesday.

Thoreen said the “Sugar Babies” star made it clear in his last years that he wanted to be buried somewhere with an association with celebrities or the military – and not in the five or so gravesites bought with Jan before the elder abuse lawsuit.

“I am really optimistic we’ll be able to reach a resolution soon. The last thing we want is further legal action with Jan. It would be a horrible disturbance,” Thoreen told The News.

The copious “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” actor required a voluntary conservatorship in 2011 to end the alleged abuse by Chris Aber and peronsally testified about his “unbearable” treatment at a Council hearing in Washington.

He then separated from Jan – who is Aber’s biological mom – in 2012 and went 30 miles west to a new household accurate to Hollywood with Jan’s other son Mark as his new primary caregiver.

In a new will signed last month and filed Tuesday, Rooney named Mark as the primary beneficiary of a trust comprising $ 18,000 in personal material goods and undisclosed monthly royalty revenue.

One source accurate to the separation covenant with Jan said Rooney was living comfortably off pension, Social Security and other returns worth about $ 10,000 a month.

Jan, 74, was receiving a monthly maintenance payment of $ 3,000 a month and remained the beneficiary of Rooney’s death benefits under the separation covenant, court records reveal.

Thoreen said Mickey had been “ruined” by Chris Aber but was on the rebound as he paid down a 2008 IRS debt of $ 88,890.

He filmed a bolt from the blue role in “Night at the Museum 3″ alongside Ben Stiller in February and boasted about a recent meeting with Leonardo DiCaprio, Thoreen said.

“He was 93, but he was phenomenally vibrant. He was well on his way to turning his career around after the hurt done by Chris,” Thoreen said.

She said Rooney seemed fine Sunday morning, talking to Mark and his wife Charlene about future plans “with no indication of any distress or illness.”

He went to take a nap, showed signs of labored breathing, and that’s when Mark and Charlene called 911, she said.

“He died of old age, of natural causes. It might have been linked to his diabetes,” she said Wednesday.

She said Rooney left his eight surviving biological children out of his will because he considered them financially independent and wanted to leave his modest estate to Mark and Charlene instead.

“He did not have a significant relationship with any of his natural children. The closeness he had with Mark wasn’t what he had with the others,” Thoreen said.

She declined to discuss Rooney’s feelings about Jan but said she never heard him question to see his wife of almost 40 years after their split.

“He had his own mind, his own thoughts. He was welcome to visit with Jan if he wanted to. There were zero requirements,” she said.

Lawyers for Jan, meanwhile, said she is devastated by Rooney’s death and was taken aback by the new will and burial proposal.

They were tenacious Chris Aber will not have a say as Jan negotiates with the estate.

“She never wanted to take sides (in the elder abuse action), and for that she’s being punished. She’s had her own shape issues – she had a tumor at one point – and she couldn’t take the stress of everything so she agreed to live separately,” her lawyer Mitchell Karasov told The News Wednesday.

“This is a very tragic case. She loved Mickey, she was loyal to him, she cared for him, and she made decisions for his sake as well as her shape’s sake because of the family conflict. She made the choice that was a hard choice for her,” he said, referring to the split.

Karasov said he had “concerns” about the validity of the new will – but he stopped fleeting of saying he might contest it.

“The door is not closed as there are some inconsistencies with the agreement covenant at this time,” he said.

Another of Jan’s lawyers said he was waiting for a new proposal from Rooney’s lawyers related to funeral and burial arrangements.

“Jan doesn’t want to make this into a fight. She wants to honor the memory of her husband of almost 40 years. If they have a suitable proposal, we’re all ears,” Yevgeny Belous told The News. “Our greatest concern is that this not turn into fight before the man is in the ground.”